Before It's Too Late
by Ancient Liddel
Summary: Can Andrew tell Ann how he really feels about her, before it's too late? Or will he chicken out, thus losing her forever? Related to my long fic called A Secret Not So Secret: takes place around chapter 17-18


**So, hello! This story is related to my long one called _A Secret Not So Secret_: it takes place some point in chapter 17 leading up to 18 in a way. I wrote this one-shot in a way where you don't have to read my long one (or I at least tried to write it in that way - not sure if I succeeded *shrugs*). So in essence, this is like spoiler city for my long one.  
And yes, in case you don't know, I renamed "Jack," "Andrew" but his middle name is Jack xD  
**

**This has some references to one of my favorite shows, Doctor Who cause really, I couldn't resist - and my long fic is filled with references from that show as well cause I can ^^  
Anywho, enjoy!  
**

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Combing his hand through his parted dark-colored hair, Andrew admired his look so far in the mirror. His attire consisted of black boots, dark-colored trousers, a white collared shirt, a tweed jacket, a burgundy bowtie, and burgundy suspenders. "Bowties are cool." he quietly commented while adjusting his bowtie.

But there was one thing missing, a thing which he treasured greatly even if others (excluding his sister) in the town didn't quite understand his antics. He glanced over to his bed in the room, which he shared, and saw his prized possession or close to it: his fez.

Oh yes!

A red _fez_.

He quickly grabbed his fez and plopped it onto his head, being careful not to ruin his hair too much. "Definitely look cool." he remarked once he returned in front of the mirror.

His admiration of how cool he thought he looked was soon interrupted when the door to his room swung open. "Andrew, where the hell are..." The young woman dressed in a yellow short-sleeved shirt covered with a pair of blue denim overalls stopped in mid-sentence, staring at the sight before her. "Gray... Cliff... and Kai..." she managed to finish her question, absolutely dumbfounded yet at the same time horrified of what she was seeing.

"How am I suppose to know, Ann?" he adjusted his fez while still looking at the mirror, "I'm not their keeper. But if I had to take a guess, they are probably hiding somewhere cause-"

"What are you wearing?" she abruptly interrupted, clearly annoyed.

"What?" he asked as he turned around to face her, giving her a knowing smile.

"Don't _what_ me! You know exactly what I'm referring to!" she crossed her arms.

"But fezzes are cool... as well as bowties."

"Says who?" she blurted out then mentally facepalmed herself since she knew exactly what he would say. She had known him pretty long, after all.

"The Doctor."

The ginger rolled her eyes. "You're not seriously considering wearing _that ridiculous_ outfit to _my_ birthday party today, are you?"

"Why not? You said and I quote 'dress up as whomever you want to.' And so I did."

"When I told you it was a 'costume party,' it did _not_ mean you could dress up like a dork!"

"You say dork; I say cool." He turned around to face the mirror again. "Potayto; Potahto." he nonchalantly commented as he tugged at his bowtie for the last time.

"Andrew!" the ginger-haired woman exasperated and flailed her arms.

He chuckled to himself, enjoying every minute of Ann's mini temper tantrum. But a scowling face on Ann, when he glanced at her reflection, showed him that he seriously was not getting out of this one, at least not alive. He didn't know why Ann was so against his choice of outfit. _Why would she care anyways?_ he asked himself then quickly thought to himself how his recent question was incredibly stupid: this was Ann he was talking about... er thinking about in this case. He quickly pushed his train of thought aside as he saw her crossing her arms again, looking even more pissed off.

Turning around, he took a deep breath and approached the ill-tempered ginger. He either had a death wish or a plan. "Ann." he began in a soothing voice; her stance and scowl remained unchanged. He leaned into her ear and whispered, "I think you are rather pretty when you're angry." then he kissed her cheek and headed out of the room, leaving a rather stupefied ginger.

Confusion, anger, and any other possible emotion coursed through Ann. But she soon snapped out of her daze, "Dammit, Andrew!" she hollered out of the room, loud enough for him to hear from the stairs, "You did that to weasel your way out of the situation! So help me when I get my hands on you..."

The rest of what she was saying Andrew couldn't hear. "She _definitely_ loves me." he laughed to himself as he opened the back room door to the kitchen.

"Need any help, sir?" he asked the innkeeper while he closed the door behind him.

"I don't think I need any, Andrew." Doug replied, as he toiled at the stove. "Besides, didn't I tell you to take today off?"

"Yes, sir; you did. But..." Andrew sighed then continued, "I feel absolutely useless right now. I've already gotten dressed for the party and-"

"And you certainly won't be helping now." Doug gave a light chuckle. "I'm not going to allow you to dirty up your clothes before the party. And no amount of insisting will change that."

"Yes, sir..."

"But that doesn't mean I don't want your company. I need to talk to you anyways; so come over here, young lad. I don't bite, ya know."

Andrew meekly obeyed, wondering if he was in trouble or not; he was quite certain he wasn't though. As he approached, his boss glanced over at him and blinked. "What on earth are you wearing there, lad?"

The dark-haired man couldn't resist on quoting The Doctor himself, even if Doug wouldn't get it, "'It's a fez. I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool.'" As soon as he uttered that, he desperately wished his sister heard him; she would have definitely given him a I-know-where's-that-from kind of smile. But instead, all he got was a confused look from Doug.

"Right then." Doug brushed the topic away while Andrew sighed. He grabbed some nearby vegetables and started chopping them. "So," he continued, "how long have you been here now? Four years is it?"

"Yes, sir; four years. Though it's rapidly working it's way up to five." Andrew replied, not knowing exactly what Doug was trying to get at.

"And you intend on staying here forever, correct?"

He leaned against the counter, drawing invisible circles on it with his finger, "As long as my sister is here, I will. I don't plan on leaving her again; not like... I did before." Memories of him leaving his little sister surfaced. He never wanted to leave her; but in a way, he was forced to. And maybe he was a coward for doing so; maybe he didn't have the guts to stand up to his parents. But what was done was done, and he knew that. It wasn't as if he piloted a blue box or anything like that.

Though there was one small redeeming factor which he held onto over the last four to six years, give or take: he wasn't sure how long ago. About a year after he left his sister, he came back (unknown to her). What possibly possessed him to do so, he really hadn't a clue and still didn't. But he _had_ to see her, at least one last time, even if was just from a distance. It was then when he felt so much guilt for leaving her.

It was outside his old high school—the one which his sister at the time was going to—where he observed the disturbing scene. A tall young man with jet-black hair had approached the young blonde-haired woman, who, of course, was Andrew's little sister. The two young teenagers obviously were in a heated argument, but that wasn't what angered Andrew. It was when the young man started to manhandle the tiny frame of his little sister; that's when he nearly went barbaric. He desperately wanted to pulverize that "bastard," as he called him, right at that moment; but he knew that if he did, his parents would find out somehow. There was that slight chance that they wouldn't though, but he couldn't risk it for the sake of his sister. So instead, he waited till that bastard was alone to, so to say, teach him a lesson. Once he did, he sternly warned or rather threatened him to not tell anyone of his appearance but more importantly to stay "the hell" away from his sister. And his confrontation with the bastard worked. His sister never had any more problems with him from that day forward.

Then approximately a year before Andrew moved to Mineral Town, he returned yet again. He had every intention to finally take his sister with him, since he knew she would be out of high school and out of the jurisdiction of their parents. He had everything planned out too, but what he didn't factor in was his little sister moving away, along with her best friend Kat, as soon as she graduated from high school. Leaving somewhat disappointed, he decided to move on with his life. He thought it was for the best. He had some hope though—hope that one day he would cross paths with her. But that hope dwindled down during the last four years, that is until his sister arrived early spring.

He never really expected to see her again, especially in a town like Mineral Town—_the_ most remote town on the planet. Sometimes though things find a way of happening. Of course, she was pissed at him—who wouldn't be? She wasn't sure at first if she should forgive him completely, which at times caused some expected tension between them. However, one common thing they had eased some of the tension between them. That was none other than their love and passion for their favorite TV shows. In a way, it helped them.

Then one day, she decided to forgive him fully. He knew deep down he didn't deserve her forgiveness but at the same time knew she would, even before she knew.

"Andrew?"

"Huh?" His mind slowly returned to the present. He wasn't exactly sure if Doug had asked him something or not, but he had a feeling he did.

The older gentleman sighed, "Do you plan to marry and start a family of your own?"

_Now_ Andrew somewhat understood the purpose of Doug's little talk. "I, uh, umm... I, uh, hope to one day." he quietly replied, stumbling over his words. _Dang! That was smooth, Andrew... real smooth._

"I see..." Doug furrowed his brows together in concentration on his work. Before Doug had the chance to continue though, his daughter came into the room. "Hey, Dad!" She glared at the fez-wearing man. "Andrew." she coldly greeted him. She _still_ was pretty angry with him. The ginger then continued, turning her attention back to her dad, "Dad, I'll be in my room getting dressed."

"Mmmhmm." he said, not really paying much attention.

"Hey, Ann." Andrew broke in, slightly grinning at her.

"Drop dead, Andrew." she scowled, heading towards her room.

Doug glanced at him, giving a What-did-you-do-now-to-anger-her? look. Andrew only shrugged his shoulders, thus ending Doug's curiosity in the matter.

The innkeeper continued with their conversation, the one before the interruption from Ann, "Speaking of Ann... what..." He paused for a bit, carefully choosing the right words to say, "what do you think of Ann? Do you... like her? You two have known each other for four years now..." he trailed off. "And spend a lot of time together..." he managed to add.

"Well, I..." The fez-wearing man stopped and stared at the tiles of the floor, carefully thinking on what his reply would be... or maybe he just didn't want to answer. But wouldn't that mean he didn't like her if he said nothing? Cause that certainly wasn't true.

Telling Doug that he liked Ann a lot scared him. And he didn't know why—no wait, he did, all too well: Doug was a type of father who wanted his daughter to get married quickly, even if he had to apply a little pressure; and his "little pressure" wasn't "little" or so Andrew had concluded. He certainly didn't want to be placed under that kind pressure, though it felt as if he currently was.

"You don't really have to answer." Dough interrupted Andrew's thoughts. Pausing, the ginger-haired man continued, knowing _exactly_ what to say next, "I know I kind of put you on the spot there. It's just I wanna make sure Ann is well looked after when I'm gone. I want her to marry a nice young man." That caused Andrew to blush slightly. "Cliff seems to fit that profile, don't you think?"

As soon as Doug mentioned the name Cliff, Andrew clenched his fists tight, trying his best not to explode. It wasn't as if he disliked Cliff—he was, after all, quite pleasant once he came out of his shell. It was the fact that Cliff was his rival in winning Ann's heart; for that, he didn't like Cliff. Well, it was more like Ann kept fawning over him ever since he arrived last winter. What exactly she saw in that vagabond—he didn't know.

He quickly answered almost as soon as Doug finished talking, "You wanna know the truth, sir? The truth is..." He paused for a few seconds, wondering whether or not he should reconsider confessing. _What the hell!_ "I've had a crush on your daughter since I got to know her, since I met her, hell, since I first saw her!" he blurted out, still a bit shocked that he actually confessed all of that to the innkeeper.

"I know that, son."

"What?" That clearly baffled Andrew, since he had done his best to hide it from everyone though his sister and Kai knew.

"I have known for quite some time actually. You could say from the day you arrived... well, not really: exaggeration right there, but I'm not kidding about the fact I already know. The question is why haven't you made a move yet? You had plenty of time."

"Now you're sounding like my sister..." the dark-haired man mumbled to himself, out of reach of Doug's hearing. It was true though: why hadn't he? Was it cowardice?

"Don't worry, lad. I don't wanna rush you, even though you wasted four years..." Dough trailed off, but quickly continued, "But I'll be honest here." He placed his hand on the fez-wearing man's shoulder, looking directly into his eyes. "You've always been my first pick." With that, he left the room, being finished with whatever he was cooking, at least for now.

Almost as soon as the innkeeper closed the door, Ann appeared. Andrew slowly took off his fez at the sight of Ann. She was wearing a beautiful yellow sundress which fitted her body quite well. Her hair retained it's regular style—a pony tail braid—but instead of a white bow tied upon her head, she had a yellow one. Andrew slightly gaped his mouth open in admiration, though he tried not to: he didn't, after all, want to look like an idiot.

It was quite rare for Ann to wear a dress; the only times she did were at festivals, though it all depended on the festivals. Every time she wore a dress though, Andrew always _always_ got butterflies in his stomach, and this situation was no exception. His crush on her definitely was a deep one, deeper than he had ever expected.

"Not one dam word out of you." Ann commanded. It was quite futile since he would say something anyways.

"What makes you think I'm going to?"

"I _know_ you."

"That you do. And you're right: I do have something to say: why are you wearing that? Oh, but I'm not saying it's ugly cause that's _far_ from the truth. It's actually rather becoming on you, not like I take notice on exactly what you wear every day, but I don't ignore what you wear either... uh... um, where was I..." he nervously laughed, "ah, yes, the dress. _Definitely_ you. But how come you're not-"

"I _am_ in costume." the ginger-haired waitress interrupted, "...this was my mother's..." she sadly went on but quickly regained her composure. She began to slowly open the door, "Thanks though for the compliment... I think somewhere in your jumble of words there was one..." She exited the room, closing the door behind her.

Only Andrew remained in the kitchen now, along with his thoughts. But he soon decided he should leave the kitchen too since guests probably were already arriving. He couldn't wait to see his sister's reaction to his outfit. He knew one hundred plus percent that she would love it.

Entering the main part of the Inn, Andrew surprisingly caught sight of quite a lot of people. He wondered just how long was he in the kitchen talking with both Doug and Ann.

Practically everyone was there, wearing their costumes. Some were fancy; some were relatively normal; and some were... unexplainable. He scanned the room further for his sister, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Leaning against the bar, he watched everyone mingle with each other then soon overheard a brief exchange between Doug and Ann. "Ann, my dear," Andrew could almost hear the tears welling up in Doug's eyes. "you are the spitting image of your mother..."

"Aww, Dad..."

"Andrew, we girls wanna talk to you." Karen interrupted his eavesdropping. Mary, Popuri, and Elli were also standing near Karen.

"Now?"

"Yes, now." Karen, followed by the three other girls, dragged him to the opposite end of the room near the exit of the Inn. He had not idea what they were up to, but he for sure wasn't going to allow them to take his precious fez.

"What you girls want anyways?" he asked, slightly worried for his fez.

"For you to man up." Karen answered. Popuri was first to shake her head in agreement, quite vigorously too. Elli and Mary shook their head in agreement as well.

"You have to tell her." Elli added before he could respond to Karen's answer.

"Tell who what?" he played dumb.

"You know exactly who and what we are talking about, Andrew. Don't pretend that you don't." Karen squinted her eyes.

"...Is it really that obvious?"

"Ah, yeah, especially within the last year."

Ever since he moved to Mineral Town, each of the girls tried in their own way to catch his attention. It was only till recently that they realized his heart only belonged to the ginger waitress and that nothing would change that. But they all still had crushes on him... and still talked amongst themselves on how absolutely handsome he was. That probably wouldn't change, at least until they themselves get married.

Andrew rubbed the back of his neck, not knowing what to say next. This wasn't exactly a normal encounter he had experienced with them.

"Though I'm warning you: you hurt our little Annie, you'll live to regret it." Karen sternly warned. All four of them each had very serious faces. He got the message thoroughly. The four girls then separated into the crowd of people to mingle, leaving Andrew with his thoughts of fear and confusion.

It was not long afterward though that the Inn's doors opened, revealing the one person Andrew was looking forward to see. "Hello, brother." his sister greeted him, holding a type of gun. Her outfit was very basic. She wore black boots, dark jeans with a brownish, greenish belt, and a plain army green t-shirt. And her hair was in a pony tail but in a way where the hair elastic couldn't be seen.

"Claire! Sis! I was wondering whether you were going to even make it."

"Course I would, stupid. I wouldn't miss Ann's birthday." she nudged her brother. "Eleventh Doctor, eh?"

"Course!" he chuckled. "And it seems like you went all out of your Jenny costume. Even included the gun."

"Well, I wanted to be as close to the character as possible... even though at the end of the episode she changed... Don't worry though: the gun isn't real." she slung the gun on her shoulders. She had made sure there were straps so that she could.

"I know that, sis. Anyone can tell that anyways. Speaking of Jenny," he continued, "wouldn't it be cool if she got to meet her stepmom, River?"

"Uhh, noooo." she wholeheartedly disagreed. "There's _so_ many things wrong with what you just said. First, I don't want River even near Jenny, at least for the first episode that she comes back... _if_ she does. And second, River and The Doctor... _not married_!"

"Yeah, they kind are, Claire; don't you remember The Wedding of River Song?"

"That means squat! It was an aborted timeline. Never happened."

"But to them it did happen, since they remember it; Amy says something on this line when she was talking about Madame Kovarian."

"And River says so her self that it was an aborted timeline. If anything their 'marriage' was symbolic, a stepping stone so to say in their relationship; even then, their relationship is more flirtatious—like they seriously flirt to the extremes at times."

"Like a married couple." Andrew interrupted.

"But _not_ a married couple. Flirting is as far as it gets really. And who the hell gets 'married' when they're angry? And don't deny this: The Doctor was pretty upset at her."

"Claire, The Doctor and River-"

"You two seriously are arguing about a TV show?" Ann cut into the conversation; neither Claire nor Andrew even noticed Ann approaching or anything. "At _my_ party?" the ginger continued, "I won't have it! You two can talk about your precious show in your spare time; but not at my party, alright? Now go have some fun! Socialize a bit!" The ginger left the brother and sister in order to mingle some more with her guests. Both Claire and Andrew shared blank stares.

"You need to tell her." the blonde remarked, cutting the silence between them. She readjusted the strap to her fake gun on her shoulder.

"Not you too..."

"What?" she scrunched her face in confusion.

"Nothing really..." His sister gave him a look, a look which told him that she would not back off from the subject. "Fine. Karen, Mary, Popuri, and Elli all approached me and told me the same thing you just did."

"Well, they're right. Even though I never expected them to say that..." she trailed off but quickly continued, "You need to—no wait, you _have_ to. Ann told me when she came over to my farm to invite me for her party—she told me that she plans on telling Cliff today her feelings for him." He gritted his teeth at the thought of it.

"I thought I told you not to interfere." he finally spoke.

"I'm not; I'm simply telling you what she told me. That's not interfering at all... well in my books it ain't. I just don't want you to be alone."

"I got you, don't I?"

"Yeah, but you know exactly what I mean." Claire gave her brother a small hug then went off to mingle with other people.

Lunch soon was served which meant a variety of different foods. It was Doug's cooking, after all. Everybody greedily gobbled it up and complimented Doug for his excellent cooking, all while gossiping about the latest news, whether it was true or not. No one had one bad thing to say about the food, and that also went for the cake which followed lunch.

But during the whole time, Andrew's mind was somewhere else. He didn't pay any attention to the conversation between Barley and Saibara who were bragging about the fact that they were healthier than any other elderly person on the mainland. He heard bits and pieces of the conversation though which somewhat interested him but quickly got lost in his own problems.

Even Manna—the town's top gossiper and the one woman whom he avoided at all costs—didn't faze him much, when she decided to sit at the same table as him. And she was quite known to talk someone's ear off so to say. As she talked and talked and talked about anything that popped into her mind, Andrew watched the innkeeper's daughter's actions trying his best to tune out the housewife. It was easier said than done.

"Excuse me, Manna." he finally said, "I'm sure what you're talking about has some significance, but I need to... find my sister right now." He stood up, ready to leave.

"Ah, yes, perfectly understandable. Your sister will most certainly be of help in your goal to court the young spirited waitress." she smiled. Luckily, the people around them weren't really paying attention, only to their respective conversations.

"What?" He stopped and faced her, growing considerably pale. For the first time, Andrew _really _paid attention to what the Queen of Gossip said. "What do you—how'd you know?" he said, clearly flustered.

"Well, for one thing, you _are_ an 'open book,' as Anna would say; so naturally it was relatively easy. But I believe it all started with Sasha..." she contemplated, "Or was it Anna... it's rather hard to tell sometimes." the housewife giggled. "No, maybe that was for something else. Oh well. But I _do_ know that when you arrived here in our quaint little town—the conversations which were had! Course Anna was quite sure you would 'hit it off,' as the youngin's say, with her dear sweet Mary. And naturally Sasha was confident with her wild daughter, Karen. But I always speculated you would end up with Ann: after all, you work and live at the Inn." The dark-haired man _really_ hoped no one around them were eavesdropping, though that was sort of useless to hope for since he was talking to the very woman who would make sure _everyone_ knew sooner or later.

"Naturally, over the years, the subject of you and Ann came up much more frequently. Things like 'when will they get together' and 'it's been three years, almost four, since he arrived; you think they would _at least_ be dating' came up. Then of course, Cliff came along. That's when the conversations got _really_ interesting."

"Does _everyone_ know?" he, without thinking, asked then quickly slapped himself mentally. Of course, _everyone_ would know; he, after all, was having a conversation with the messenger.

She giggled a little, "Not sure, but it is rather hard keeping something a secret here if one was planning to and all. I'm sure you wanted it kept a secret; but things have a way of coming out in some form or another, even if the person doesn't even realize it. I know Anna, Sasha, and myself know—it's one of our favorite topics on our talks in the square. Well, it's more like we _strongly_ suspected it which was just proven. Course, like I said, _I_ was the one who thought of it first and stuck with it. Glad I did too! Oh, what talks we'll have now! As for everyone else—I can't say for them, but _everyone_ here picks up on the little things. So it wouldn't surprise me at all."

_And that's where the gossip originates_. he thought to himself as he rubbed the back of his neck, trying to make sense of everything Manna had rambled on. He had no idea what to say to Manna, not like he had to; she did enough talking for five people. "Don't let me keep you, Andrew dear. Go and do what you originally were going to do before I disrupted you."

He nodded and went to find his sister. He didn't exactly know why he wanted to find his sister; maybe it was to keep his mind off from the whole situation, as if anything could. But he gave it a shot, nevertheless.

He immediately found her since she was practically at the opposite side of the room, sitting at a table with Gray and Trent of all people. Sitting down on an empty chair without so much as greeting his new company, he stared out and watched Ann again. He didn't pay any attention to any conversation, if there was any. Though he knew his sister was staring at him, probably wondering what was going on in his head. But he ignored that. All he could do was watch Ann and brood.

He watched her as she mingled around the room, her yellow dress flowing according to her movements. Her laughter, her smile—everything about her he watched and admired. There were times where she looked towards his way; and every time he quickly looked somewhere else, blushing ever so slightly.

Noticing now her sudden change in demeanor—hands fidgeting, playing with her braid—he quickly grew concerned. He knew _exactly_ what was going in her head and whom she was looking at. And he couldn't take it—not one bit. Without even thinking his actions through, he shot up off his chair and quickly took off his fez then chucked it at his sister. "Look after my fez, will ya sis?" Before his sister could even respond, he quickly made his way towards Ann.

Just as soon as he approached Ann, he grabbed her arm. "Ann, we need to talk... in private." he said then quickly dragged her up the Inn's stairs.

Once in the hallway of the second floor, Ann jerked herself out of Andrew's grip. "What the hell do you want, Andrew? In case you hadn't notice, my birthday party is going on down there. What was so dam important that you had to drag me up here?"

The realization of what he had done was starting to kick in, causing his now dry mouth. "I, uh..." But he couldn't back down—not now.

"You what? You're going to take tomorrow off? Or work an extra shift? You're going to finally get rid of your fez? Which strangely isn't on you, not like I'm complaining..." she trailed off. "Just. What. Do. You. Want?"

He opened his mouth, debating what to say—how to say it, but quickly closed his mouth; and he did that repetitively. "You know, I don't have time to watch your goldfish impression." She started her way towards the stairs. "I have to talk to someone, anyways; and I was going to till you-"

Within seconds, he ran, grabbed her arm, thus turning her around, and instead of telling her, showed her by planting a kiss on her lips. She somewhat tensed up, not knowing exactly what to do or really how to respond. He pulled away shortly thereafter, giving her time to process what had just happened as well as himself.

It had been short but to the point.

She slowly felt her lips with two of her fingers, eyes bulging still. Shock definitely had etched it's way onto her face. She absolutely had no idea how or even what to think. She blinked once, twice, then scampered away, heading for the Inn's exit.

"O for the love of... naturally, she runs..." he mumbled, throwing his hands in the air.

"Ann!" He ran right after her, skipping steps on his way down the stairs.

"Ann!" he called out again. The looks and stares he got from people—he couldn't care less at that moment. _Let them stare._ The only thing running through his mind was Ann.

After shoving the Inn's door wide open, he perused his surroundings. No sign of Ann was to be found. "Dammit, she's just way too fast. Where on earth would she... go." He immediately started running to the one place he knew she loved to go to clear her thoughts, the one place which had a waterfall.

Approaching the path leading to the waterfall, he slowed down. "I need to work out more." he panted, bending over trying to catch his breath, "Lifting dishes up everyday won't cut it. My sister is probably more in shape than I am." Glancing upward, he caught a glimpse of his favorite waitress. _Gotta be done. Can't back down now, Andrew._ He took a deep breath, gave himself one last pep talk, and slowly made his way over to the red head.

"Ann?" He sat down on the same stump she was on.

"Get the hell away from me, Andrew." She shot up and walked away from him towards the Hot Springs. "I _do not_ want to talk."

"On the contrary, Ann, you do; but you are too stubborn to admit it." In response, all he got was silence. "Dammit, say something!"

"Why should I?" she demanded, her back still towards him. She just couldn't look at him.

"Cause you want to work _this_ out just as much as I do. Dammit, can't you-"

"Why?" she turned her head to the side, still unable to see him, "Why did you do it? And why the hell now?"

"I had to!" He shot up from sitting on the stump, passion taking over him. "I had to before it was too late! Before I _really_ lost my chance..." he trailed off.

When Ann didn't respond immediately, he took that as his cue to continue, "You've always been _very_ special to me, Ann. Right from the moment I met you. Your smile, your laughter—everything about you always, everyday brings some sort of happiness to me. And quite frankly, I needed that, especially when I first arrived here in this town; I still do. I guess what I'm trying to say in my long-winded way is that I like you. I like you more than a friend, more than a confidant, more than... I could ever imagine." He clenched his fists together before continuing. "If I have to fight for you, then so be it. Cause I'll be damned if I let some vagabond ta-" Ann grabbed him and pressed her lips onto his, thus cutting his little speech. He loosened his fists.

"What the hell took you so long?" she broke slightly from the kiss and softly whacked him in the arm. Words did not find the dark-haired man. "I waited three years for you to do something like this—three dam years! It felt a hundred times that! I was beginning to wonder _if_ you would ever."

"You knew?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Point is I waited and waited... and waited and nothing. So when Cliff came along, I had nothing to hold me back; I guess it took that to grab your attention."

"Was liking Cliff a... plan?" he dared asked, not knowing whether he wanted to hear the answer. But as soon as he asked that, he realized that asking something like that was quite stupid; he mentally slapped himself.

"No, I really did like Cliff. _But_ I did like you more... a lot more, even if you were too dam blind to see it. You were—or I should say _are_ my first crush and only the one that I ever want to have." She blushed a small pink, her heart beating rather rapidly.

"Come here." Pulling her closer to him, he rested his hands on her waist while hers rested on his chest. He leaned into her soft lips, kissing her gently then a little more harder and passionately as time progressed.

Before either of them knew it, they found themselves against the wall of the Hot Springs, never stopping on kissing each other. They completely ignored their surroundings—the hum of the Hot Springs, the roaring waterfall creating a steady rhythm, the chirping birds in the trees (though they seemed to have calmed down), and the clouds slowly dancing in the sky. The only thing they cared for was expressing the last four years of built of feelings and emotions.

Ann ran her hands through his dark brown hair, completely ruining his hairstyle and restoring it back to it's natural messiness. "You need a hat; that or a haircut." she mumbled in between kisses, breathing heavily.

Andrew ignored her little remark and continued kissing her, working his way from her lips to her jaw, down her throat to his destination, her neck. A shiver traveled up and down her spine. "Andrew?"

"Hmm?"

"The action is up here, buddy."

He looked directly into her blue eyes, the bluest blue he had ever seen in all his life, and gave her a small smile. Then, he swiftly returned his lips onto hers, relishing every moment. She slipped her hands down to where his bowtie resided and began to untie it. "Ann?" he said, now resting his forehead onto hers, "What are you doing?"

"What's it look like I'm doing?"

"From here... attempting to untie my awesome bowtie."

"Ding, ding, ding, ding."

"Why though?"

"Cause," she finally slipped it off his neck, "it's annoying and in my way."

"No it's-" Ann swiftly placed her finger on his lips, giving him a yes-it-is look. She was about to toss it onto the ground, but Andrew quickly grabbed her wrist. "It's not going on the ground."

The ginger sighed but quickly thought of an idea. She tied the bowtie to the end of her braid, thinking that would appease him. "Happy?"

"Well, not yet." he replied, leaning closer to her lips, desiring more.

She gave him an alluring smile, inviting him to connect his lips to her soft warm ones. They continued to passionately kiss more for a bit (or as the kids say "eat each other's faces off") till Ann pushed Andrew in frustration, much to his confusion. "I'm sorry, but the tweed jacket has to go. It is incredibly annoying. Take it off, now."

"Ann."

"No arguing here; we both know who wins the arguments."

He scowled at her then reluctantly slipped off his tweed jacket. Ann snatched it out of his hands and chucked it onto the ground, despite his protests. "Are you happy _now_, Ann?"

"Hmm..." She tapped her index finger on her chin. "I think so." she flashed him a smile.

Shaking his head, he couldn't help but chuckle at her actions. He brushed her cheek with his thumb in which she melted at the very touch of him. Their lips met yet again. He gently slipped his other hand to cup her face, still continuing on kissing. But mother-nature had something to say in the matter.

A few drops of rain decided to fall on Andrew's head, but he paid no head to it. Why should he when he had finally gotten the woman of his dreams? More drops fell then a whole slew of them poured out of the sky, officially disrupting the preoccupied couple. "I will _never_ get used to this weather in Mineral Town." Andrew remarked as he picked up his tweed jacket off the ground. It was a bit damp, but it had to do. He held it up for the two of them, with the assistance of Ann, for some protection from the rain.

"The caves, Andrew. The caves." Ann pointed towards the direction of them.

Without thinking any further, the two of them sprinted into the caves. The sudden blast of cold air in the cave though made them reconsider their choice of shelter. The two of them were, after all, relatively wet. Mix that with the cold air in the caves, and that was a recipe for the chills. "Maybe the smarter thing we should have done was head into the Hot Springs building. At least there, it's a lot warmer than here." Andrew spoke as he sat down beside Ann near the exit of the caves.

"Too late now." Ann pointed out, adjusting the tweed jacket Andrew had placed around her. "The rain really has started to pour heavily, and I'm certainly not going out there any time soon."

"But Ann, it's _really_ not that far. It would be a short dash there and viola, inside—inside a place a hell lot warmer than here."

"Yeah, well, I just don't feel like it, alright? We're fine here for now." she remarked as she leaned her head on his shoulder, embracing his arm.

"Whatever you say, Ann." Andrew slightly chuckled. There were just some things he never understood about her and probably never would, but that made her all that more special to him.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, their party of two became a party of three when a blue merle dog came dashing towards them, completely drenched from the rain. After shaking off the water from herself, the dog then squeezed in between the couple, breaking them somewhat apart, and settled in. "I guess Akira here didn't like the idea of being alone on Claire's farm." Ann commented, petting the damp dog.

"I guess so." Andrew said, glancing at the ginger. He wrapped his arm around her and gave her a slight squeeze. "My Annie."

Ann sighed. "Don't call me Annie—you know I don't like it; and you know what happens when people continue to do so." The ginger remarked, remembering the time Kai had called her that earlier in the summer.

"Yeah, well, it's fun seeing you angry." Ann lightly whacked him, trying her best to stifle a chuckle.

Andrew merely smiled. A break in talking gave him the chance to reflect on how lucky he was to finally have Ann as his girlfriend. After four years—four years! He was ever so thankful that he wasn't too late.

* * *

**I'm not even sure if the ending was any good lol**

**Well, there you have it! Hope you enjoyed it! :)  
Review if ya like! ...or don't lol It's up to you :P  
**


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